GAYOT's Blog

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by Jennifer Olvera

It wouldn’t really be Thanksgiving without the bird. However, there’s no need to settle for a staid approach — or do any of the heavy lifting yourself. This year, some Chicago restaurants are dishing up unique feasts, ones that require no fuss on your part but offer plenty of full-flavor surprises.

Big Jones, for example, will serve a festive, southern-style feast, complete with pimento cheese, okra and pickled green tomato starter; cornbread muffins and Sally Lunn bread with house-churned butter alongside house Concord grape and hot pepper jellies; a choice of appetizers, including butternut squash gnocchi with fried sage, roasted pears and mushroom jus; Vidalia onion and goat cheese pie with herb purée; a Waldorf salad with Redcort apples; and deep-fried Gunthorp Farms turkey with onion-thyme dressing. Needless to say, you can expect other comfort-driven, updated sides ($46 adults, $20 children under 12).

Continue reading “Bird is the Word: Thanksgiving, Chicago-Style” »

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by Jeff Hoyt

 
The weather gods smiled on the 24th Annual Great Chefs of Los Angeles “Go Green, Go Organic” event, where threatening skies turned into warm afternoon sunshine. The event featuring food, wine, beer and fun benefitted the National Kidney Foundation. Since its inception in 1987, it has raised more than $4.5 million.

Featured Great Chefs included Adam Horton from Saddle Peak Lodge, named one of our Rising Chefs, who prepared braised wild boar with leek soubise; Matt Carpenter of Momed, who wowed the crowd with his duck shwarma; and Onil Chibás & Alberto Morales of Elements Kitchen who cleverly crossed cultures with their satisfying marinated flank steak kimchi tacos. The most memorable food product of the day: Sushi Poppers!
Continue reading “Green & Great Chefs” »

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by: Sophie Gayot

 

There are many ways to buy products from Harry & David, the 75-year-old gourmet gift company. They have a website, a 24/7 call center (1-877-322-1200), catalogues and 126 retail stores throughout the country, making it one of the largest in the US. But this is a big country, so to make our lives even easier, they have decided to open 16 pop-up stores for the holidays to get closer to you.

  Continue reading “Harry & David & You” »

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by André Gayot

In my European journey, despite the seasonal French pseudo-revolutionary sitcom, I was able to visit the SIAL in Villepinte near Paris. I guess the acronym is used instead of the full name — Salon des Industries Alimentaires or Food Industry Exhibition — because it’s shorter for the media and maybe also because we don’t like to be reminded that the content of our plates is nowadays largely concocted in industrial factories by Big Business. But there are also artisans who strive to find improbable ways to find a magic formula, such as the one who creates his “caviar” from truffle juice. Caviar is expensive, but so are truffles. I am missing his point.

Continue reading “Food Flair at the Food Fair” »

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by Jeff Hoyt

Americans are dining out more, but spending less per meal. That’s the conclusion of payment processor First Data. Comparing September 2010, to a year earlier, food service establishments posted a 12.7-percent jump in transactions, the highest increase in 18 months. However, they also suffered a 4.5 percent decrease in the average check for the month, meaning customers were ordering less and taking advantage of promotions. Perhaps diners are sharing appetizers and desserts, or forgoing the steak for the hamburger.

To make your dining dollars go further, check out our Top 40 Cheap Eats in the U.S. and Best Value Restaurants near you. In our GAYOT Economic Stimulus Plan, we list the Top 10 Value Hotels Worldwide which can help you save on your vacation, and even the Top 10 Value Automobiles to help you get there. And if dollars are so tight that you’re stuck at home, why not try one of our Top 10 Wines Under $10? Cheers to better times ahead.

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by Jeff Hoyt 

It can be tough when your neighbors are lawyers. Just ask the owner of Rogue States, a Washington, DC, hamburger restaurant that was sued by the high-powered law firm located nearby. Yesterday, a judge ordered the restaurant to stop grilling hamburgers because of the “intense and noxious odor.”  

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by Jeff Hoyt

New Yorkers may think their metropolis is superior to Kansas City — both Kansas and Missouri — but there’s one place where they’re completely equal: inside a cow. Believe it or not, a New York strip steak is identical to a Kansas City strip steak. They’re both the marbled larger end of the short loin. That muscle, which is tender because it isn’t used much, is also called a striploin, shell steak, or sirloin club steak, although I’d imagine New York clubs are superior to Kansas City clubs!

Now keep that same strip steak on the bone, and add a piece of the nearby tenderloin, and you’ve got a T-bone steak. Unless you add a lot of the tenderloin, which gives you a Porterhouse. Confused? Check out our guide to beef cuts, which explains the difference between Rib-eye and Prime rib.
Continue reading “A Lot at Steak” »

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by Jeff Hoyt

Wesley Holton worked in Daniel Boulud’s kitchens in New York City and Palm Beach, Florida, before becoming executive chef at the Daniel Boulud Brasserie in the famed Wynn Las Vegas hotel. But since that high-end French restaurant closed earlier this year, Holton has a new gig: making tacos in Detroit’s first food truck!

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by Michelle Kwan  

Attendees raised their glasses, not to mention their forks, spoons and chopsticks, in support of healthcare and social services to the Asian community at the Project By Project annual Plate By Plate Tasting Benefit held October 1 at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City. The Tasting Benefit featured over 40 participants from some of New York City’s finest restaurants and bakeries coming together to showcase their culinary skills with samplings of their signature creations, along with a host of wine and spirit purveyors, brewers, tea and coffee companies, all ready to do their part to keep the evening festive for the approximately 650 guests in attendance.  

Continue reading “Serving the Community Plate by Plate” »

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by Jeff Hoyt

Working in an office, I always worry about people coming to work ill. I appreciate their dedication to the job, but don’t want them getting me sick. I’d hate to bring a cold or flu home to my kids.

Although there’s no cure for the common cold, there are proven things you can take to build up your defenses. Check out our top 10 immune system boosters and see which ones are right for you. Personally, I take Vitamin C every day, and zinc lozenges when I feel a cold coming on.

Continue reading “The Tissue Issue” »

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